Even a successful publication needs retooling now and then, and that's what's happening with her™, a magazine published by the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa.

Currently, her™ is inserted into the newspaper eight times a year and specialized issues are published separately twice a year. The magazine is also placed in 300 high-traffic areas such as restaurants, health clubs, spas and office waiting rooms.

With the aid of three FOIA veterans, GateHouse Media's professional development series recently revealed six things journalists should keep in mind when requesting public records in order to make their requests more effective and less likely to be held up or denied.

"People are the life, the driving force of every community," says Rick Kennedy, regional editor of The Hope (Ark.) Star. The paper highlighted 20 individuals who are moving their community forward and making improvements in the lives of others in a special "20 under 50" section published Saturday, June 3.

Hope Star readers were asked to participate by nominating people under the age of 50 who are making big contributions in Hempstead County.

This free, easy-to-use tool was built for newsrooms and freelancers to begin addressing the challenges of newsletter curation. As it stands, newsrooms no longer have the time nor the resources to maintain unfocused newsletter programs that don’t achieve their goals. Opt In is an online tool that gives news organizations, freelancers and regular people the ability to build an e-newsletter strategy from scratch, or create a plan to improve upon an existing one.

When it comes to newsletters, the meat of your product should be the content of the email. However, after launching a brand-new letter or reviving an old one, it's critical that newsrooms make a concentrated push for sign-ups. Many newsrooms use ads in house and on other websites, or opt for an embedded sign-up box in the body of an article or on their landing page. But some are still using the good old pop-up form.

But there's a catch: The pop-up form can be tricky. Sites can be dinged by Google for interrupting or obscuring the reader's experience. So why bother? At nearly 2 percent, the conversion rate for pop-ups is remarkably high, and while using them may interrupt usability, gaining immediate access to a reader's inbox is a powerful tool for newsrooms.

Pop-up forms get a bad rap, but for those sites that are willing to take the risk by using ads to garner subscribers, they make it worth their while.

We've listed five of our favorite, most eye-catching pop-up forms from across the web. Not only are these forms interesting, they actually convince us to sign up for a newsletter we otherwise may have overlooked.

Newsrooms can no longer afford to distribute poorly curated newsletters. Yet executives from many modern newsrooms say they lack the financial and staff capacity to do otherwise. Crosscut Public Media, in partnership with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, will soon be releasing a new, free tool for newsrooms and newsletter curators to begin addressing this challenge.

You're the editor of a small-town paper in a community covered by sprouting corn fields, or majestically wrapped in wind-blown wheat. You know agriculture plays an important part in shaping the economics of your region, but how do you get at the heart of it? Here are some tips.